[Written on and off between 11-1-18 to 11-19-18]
Tags: Character Study, Human Sacrifice, Eye Trauma, Torture and Blood, Hunting, and Electrocution.
If any of the above tags sound less than pleasing, browse away now.
"Galvanizer"
Dead by Daylight one-shot
He liked watching them dance. Like puppets on string, they jerked as soon as the electric current hit them. The sweet sound of a sharp intake of breath that twisted into a pained groan was music to Carter's ears. The involuntary convulsive movements that rattled their limbs a beautiful sight that never failed to trigger his hunting instincts, a pleasant shiver running down Carter's spine as they recovered, sprinting ahead, and quickly disappearing from sight.
Carter tightened the grip on his weapon before surging forward. Even if he could have closed his eyes, he would have been able to navigate with ease. The dark hallways of the abandoned institute were his playground and pity to those who had been loosed within its walls.
His neck twitched violently as a surge of electricity ran down his body from head to toe, grounding itself out on the floor with a shower of sparks. A rush of heated energy coursed through Carter's veins, his vision sharpening for a moment, highlighting those running like rats in a maze in a desperate bid to escape.
They didn't know it, but Carter's treatment would help them uncover their true selves. In the past, before he'd been summoned by the Entity, hundreds of people had spilled their deepest secrets, layers of resistance stripped away under electricity's formidable sway. It was an unmaker of men, everyone rendered equal when exposed to it.
The first one he caught, a blonde in pigtails, squirmed on his shoulder valiantly, her fists pounding hard on his back. All for naught though as Carter approached the meat hook, displeasure blooming inside him. He found the hook an unsubtle and crude instrument of torment. Too short-lived and ugly to have any vested interest in it. Then again, the pain displayed once hooked wasn't for Carter, but rather a private show for the Entity. All part of the ritualistic need required for a sacrifice.
Carter lifted the woman up and impaled her upon the hook, the punch of pierced flesh bringing with it an aroma of copper, blood dripping onto the floor. The anguish on her face was clear, Carter leaving her to writhe as he heard the patter of nearby footfalls and carefully zeroed in on them, keeping himself out of sight.
The capped man never saw him coming, Carter managing to strike a deep blow against his back, agony causing the man to limp forward, unknowingly leaving behind a trail of blood for Carter to follow.
The cat and mouse game lasted a few minutes, Carter employing the use of another meat hook as the sky darkened overhead, the Entity taking its fair due. It seemed no rescue had come for the blonde woman. Carter watched his reflection in young man's sunglasses as he hung there, more interested in how he much he'd changed than the man's suffering, scrambling to change his dark fate.
Carter's facial features had long gone numb, but he still remembered the day the Entity's nebulous hands had touched him, digging mercilessly into his flesh. Cold metal tightening upon the back of his head, pulling at the edges of his mouth, and scraping against his eye sockets.
An all-consuming torment as the apparatus burned white hot, melding itself to his face permanently. In the face of the supernatural, things like the need for blinking and a wet mouth paled and became unimportant. Carter had become other and followed the rules of a new strange reality.
Shaking off the reverie, he returned to the hunt. The sound of a sharp alarm pierced the air, signaling all the generators had been repaired. If Carter didn't react fast enough, it was guaranteed the rest of them would secure their means of escape.
Redoubling his efforts, Carter soon across another man, this one wearing eyeglasses. He sent a lance of electricity ahead of him, the man's gait interrupted for a moment. Carter kept on him, even as he jumped through windows and rounded corners, trying to shake Carter off his trail.
He took perverse pleasure in shocking the man every chance he got until finally his prey abruptly seized and dropped to the floor, muttering nonsense to himself. Carter would have smiled if he could, proud of breaking the man lying on his feet.
Hooking him would have been entirely too easy, but Carter refused to do so. He'd worked too hard chasing down the others to simply give another over to the Entity. No, the dark red-haired man would not be a sacrifice. Carter wanted at least one for himself.
He put his weapon away and crouched over the man, electricity arcing between his hands, heartbeat rising in anticipation. Concentrating intently, sparks flew from Carter's whole body, and though he could not say exactly how high it was, when he shook with the intense heat and power of the voltage, Carter put his hands next to the man's ears and let loose.
The massive jolt of electricity took Carter's mind with it as the man's body contorted wildly, racing down blood veins, lancing cells of every nature, and burning body parts, intricate internal systems dying within seconds. When the loaded charge reached the brain, it cooked the organ, whatever life had been left in the body dissipating.
Carter came back to himself with a shudder, aware of the sound of a pulsating mechanical sound in the distance, a sign the exit door had been opened. He merely laughed, exhilarated from his overwhelming sensory journey. The sting of heated flesh wafted past his nose, dark clouds of smoke billowing from the man's ruptured eyes and slack mouth, fingers locked in rictus against his neck and chest.
Having used all his power for the moment, Carter was tired and burnt out. So weak that when the myriad of voices that were his constant companion rose sharply in volume, they seemed to come from every side, surrounding him. Dark shapes danced in front of his eyes and Carter sank to his knees, placing his hands over his ears as if he could block out the mental whispers.
His head was full of the Entity's displeasure, pain racking his body as it struck out repeatedly, instilling pain in every nerve of Carter's body. Serving to remind him that just like the people he chased down, he owed his continued existence to the Entity and was but a slave to its will. Groomed as Carter had been to take on his current hunter role, one day he too would become the hunted.
For there was no true escape for any of them, only delaying the inevitable for one more day.